Read it: John 1:29-36; Exodus 12:1-11
Live it:
John the Baptist is the first to use the term The Lamb of God. This term is not used anywhere else in the Bible or Hebraic writings. So what does it refer to? Is John creating a new phase that means something unique? Or, is there an Old Testament precedence?
In the second reading today, we find the most probable reference: the Passover Lamb. This recording of God bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt occurred only because the lambs gave their lives in place of the firstborn. Freedom from slavery in Egypt cost the children of Israel their firstborn sons. God said that any house that did not follow the command of Moses by sacrificing a lamb would lose their firstborn son. Therefore, the price for freedom from slavery is the blood of the firstborn son or its substitute.
Slavery in Egypt is a picture of humanity’s slavery to our sinful nature and our deserved punishment. How then do we get out of slavery to sin? What can I offer to get me out of this sinful position? I can never be holy enough? I can never be good enough? I cannot sacrifice anything but my life. But, once I am dead, how can I live again?
Remember the lamb. Jesus is now our substitutionary lamb. He dies, and we are saved. He takes our place and frees us from the power of slavery. Sin now has no control over our lives because we are now in the land of God’s freedom! The Lamb of God dies in my place.
In more theological terms, Jesus is our perfect, substitutionary sacrifice. The Passover lamb had to be without blemish, so our sacrificial lamb has to be without blemish (sinless). But, this is God telling us how much he loves us. He gave Himself as the Lamb so that we can have eternal life with Him.
The most important question in your life is “Do you have a personal relationship with God through Jesus the Lamb of God?”
If not, now is the time, today is the day. All you have to do is believe that the Lamb took your place. Believing is not mental assent but putting your life, all your life, in the Lamb’s hands. It is living your life full of repentance and faith. The Lamb of God is the one who “takes away the sin of the world” and mine, too! I will praise the Lamb for His willingness to be my perfect, substitutional sacrifice.
Carl